Anthropological
Evolutionary Urbanism

URBAN LIVING: Anthropological Evolutionary Urbanism
Luca S. D'Acci



Forthcoming book (early 2026)


This forthcoming book reports findings from an extensive academic literature across disciplines not usually talking among each other, consolidating a new perspective for urban planning, centering on human nature, ultimately intended.
While picturing an idea of most current big cities being not ideal for our wellbeing, it also prizes them as a great human achievement which could, and should, get better and better. It underlines the importance of smaller settlements on the basis of the empirical evidence, without necessarily having to escape from the big city, which instead could become more attractive if wisely planned and integrated in the larger multivariate territory.



From the Preface:

In the process of laying the foundations for a new critique of human societies and human habitats, I wrote this book with the aim to collect, sometimes interpret, and disseminate knowledge from different disciplines – typically not considered in urban planning and (e)valuations – reorganizing them into a least common denominator helping educated thoughts toward making better human habitats. 
Endemic to social sciences and urban studies for over a century, the rural-urban debate lacks an evolutionary perspective.

[...] We live in under-optimal versions of our settlements; the attempt in the end is to bring what could be called the Anthropological-Evolutionary Urbanism introduced in this book, to bear on the traditional urban and social studies for the betterment of our settlement living.

From the Afterthoughts:

[...] Humans are not victims of cities and megacities; they are the authors of a story none wrote. But today we can rewrite this story if it is not the one we want, by (re)valorising smaller settlements and making big cities more pleasant.

The shimmering allure of cities should draw us as bees to flowers, not as mosquitoes to zappers.

I am certain that this betterment route will create cities so attractive and agreeable as to proudly epitomise one of the greatest physical manifestations of human intellect. 
... 'a book that has never finished saying what it has to say'... intriguing... essential reflections... emerging theme

By the end of this century, most of us will be living in cities of one size or another but they are forever changing in their composition and shape. Their form is never final, Luca D’Acci’s review of multiple forces that coalesce in the places we inhabit which he entitles Anthropological Evolutionary Urbanism, reflects Italo Calvino’s classic dictum of ‘ … a book that has never finished saying what it has to say’. What is intriguing in his treatise is the echo that haunts us down the ages, of phenomenon that is always contingent, hence unpredictable and temporal, which is a theme that we are only slowly beginning to recognise in our search for stable patterns of urban life. This book provide essential reflections on this emerging theme.

Michael Batty
Urban Analyst
CBE FRS FBA, Emeritus Bartlett Professor of Planning at University College London where he is Chair of the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA). Four honorary doctorates and a Vautrin Lud Prize winner (known as the Nobel Prize of Geography). 

... well-informed and provocative... These ideas can stimulate progress

Luca D’Acci’s latest book, well-informed and provocative, poses important questions about the impact of urban living on mental health, happiness, and the meaning that we create in our lives by making choices and investing in them.  It draws on insights from multiple disciplines to make the argument that many of us are happier living in the country, small towns, or small cities than in large ones, and it raises the possibility that we may not, in the future, have to trade those environments for successful careers as technology continues to free us from prior constraints.  It is well worth the read. These ideas can stimulate progress.

Stephen C. Stearns
Evolutionary Biologist
Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, former President of the  European Society for Evolutionary Biology, and ex vice-President of the Society for the Study of Evolution, founding editor of the Journal of Evolutionary Biology and of Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health, and author of Life History Evolution and of Evolutionary Medicine. Honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich.

... novelty, breadth and depth of thinking

This book reflects on a personal journey that the author has taken over the last 10 years. It emphasises the importance of scale and diversity in urban form, suggesting that there is no ideal but only differences. A strong case is made for taking an holistic approach that integrates perspectives from a range of social, medical and natural sciences. The book is well worth reading for its novelty, breadth and depth of thinking.

David Banister
Geographer
Professor Emeritus at School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, former Director of the Environmental Change Institute, and of the Transport Studies Unit.

... ambitious... enduring value

Luca D’Acci’s Urban Living is an ambitious interdisciplinary inquiry into how cities shape human life, spanning evolutionary anthropology, psychology, neuroscience, primatology, and sociology. For me, its enduring value is the truth it names: survival is not the same as flourishing. True flourishing calls for cities that join their Neolithic gift—the vibrant intermixing of peoples and ideas—with our older Paleolithic inheritance: nature still visible, tangible, and wild.

Peter H. Kahn, Jr.
Psychologist 

Professor of Psychology and Environmental and Forest Sciences, and Director of the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems (HINTS) Lab at the University of Washington. Author of Technological Nature: Adaptation and the Future of Human Life.

could not be more timely... compelling

This book could not be more timely. As cities expand worldwide, understanding how they shape our minds and well-being has become a central challenge. Drawing on the latest findings from neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, and urban studies, Luca D’Acci offers a compelling synthesis of how modern urban life interacts with brains that evolved for very different environments. Rather than idealizing or condemning urbanization, Urban Living integrates diverse evidence into a thoughtful assessment of the opportunities and risks of city life, and how these might be managed through better design and policy. The result is an helpful guide to how humans can thrive in habitats that are, in evolutionary terms, still very new to us.

Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
Psychiatrist, Neuroscientist

Director of the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim and Professor at Heidelberg University; author of Nature and Science studies. Editor-in-Chief of Neuroscience Applied, laureate of the ECNP Neuropsychopharmacology Award, Prix Roger de Spoelberch, and Robert Sommer Medal, and among the world’s most Highly Cited Researchers. 

... fascinating... great reading

What is it like for a great ape - furless, but not fearless - to find itself in a novel environment that in many ways deviates from the environment in which it evolved? Does the new environment impact its well-being or its physical and mental health? "Urban living”, as we learn from the book by Luca S. D’Acci, is indeed challenging for a creature with our behavioural and genetic make-up. But it is also full of opportunities - otherwise it would not have happened that the majority of members of our species nowadays seem to "prefer" urban life over rural. Luca S. D’Acci has reviewed a huge amount of information and digested it for us readers in the form of a fascinating book on urban living from an anthropological and evolutionary perspective. This is great reading that I highly recommend.

Martin Brüne
Psychiatrist, Neurologist
Professor of Psychiatry and Head of the Division of Cognitive Neuropsychiatry and Psychiatric Preventive Medicine at the LWL University-Hospital, Ruhr-University Bochum. Author of Evolutionary Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Medicine.

... pathbreaking... much-needed assessment

Darwin’s study of moths in 19th century Birmingham, England proved that evolution did not cease with urbanization. The epigenetic revolution reveals that genes are not simply inherited and expressed but expressed and even changed (via methylation) through interactions with the environment. With global urbanization currently at 58% and rising, the environment for humans is increasingly urban. D’Acci’s pathbreaking book Urban Living offers a much-needed assessment of what scientist have learned about human adaptation, development, and evolution in urban settings.

Douglas .S. Massey
Sociologist
Henry G. Bryant Professor at Princeton University, former President of the American Sociological Association, and 2025 Princess of Asturias Laureate for Social Sciences. Author of Strangers in a Strange Land: Humans in an Urbanizing World.

No generative artificial intelligence (AI) was used for this book

URBAN LIVING

expected spring 2026 (Routledge)

URBAN SCALING

2025 (Routledge)

URBAN MORPHOLOGY

2019 (Springer)

‌

AI Website Creator